LENIN COLLECTION.

...concentrates itself more and more as private property in the hands of an insignificant number of capitalists and major landowners, as their private property. The ever-increasing majority of the population cannot exist otherwise than through the sale of its labor-power. An ever-increasing number of workers, losing the means of production, are forced to resort to the sale of their labor-power. They thus find themselves in a dependent position as hired workers (proletarians), who through their labor create the income of the owners.

**Continuous Perfection of Technique.** The development of capitalism increasingly augments the number, scale, and economic significance of large capitalistic enterprises, lowers the living standard of petty independent producers (peasants, artisans, craftsmen), transforms some of them into servants and tributaries of capital, and forces others into the ranks of the propertyless, destitute class of proletariat, lacking the means of production.

The further technical progress advances, the greater the possibilities capitalists have to raise the level of exploitation of workers, yet the more the increase in demand for labor-power lags behind the increase in its supply. The growth of destitution, insecurity of existence, unemployment, exploitation, oppression and degradation is the result of the fundamental tendencies of capitalism, the fate of ever-wider strata of the laboring population. Insecurity of existence, unemployment, oppression of exploitation and every kind of degradation become the fate of ever-wider strata of the laboring population.

Industrial crises intensify this process still further, crises which are inevitably caused by the fundamental contradictions of capitalism indicated above. The poverty and destitution of the masses are combined with the squandering of social wealth due to the impossibility of finding a market for produced commodities.

Thus the gigantic development of the productive forces of society and of ever more socialized labor is accompanied by the fact that an insignificant minority of the population monopolizes all the principal benefits of this development. Along with the growth of social wealth grows social inequality, the chasm between the class of owners (the bourgeoisie) and the class of proletarians deepens and widens.

LENIN.---- SKETCHES OF A PROJECT PROGRAM.

**(A) § III. Large Production.** Small production is increasingly displaced by large. Petty independent producers (peasants, artisans, craftsmen) are transformed either into complete proletarians or into servants and tributaries of capital.

Continuous improvement of technique leads to the fact that small production is increasingly displaced by large. The most important part of the means of production (factories and plants, instruments and machinery, railroads and other means of communication) concentrates itself in the hands of a comparatively insignificant number of capitalists and major landowners, as their private property. Petty independent producers (peasants, artisans, craftsmen) are ever more ruined, losing completely the means of production and thus being transformed into proletarians or becoming servants and tributaries of capital. An ever-increasing majority of the population of workers is forced to resort to the sale of their labor-power.

**[First Variant.]**
They become thus hired workers, who find themselves in a dependent position from the owners, creating through their labor the income and wealth of the latter.

**[Second Variant.]**
These hired workers (proletarians) thus find themselves in a dependent position from the owners, creating through their labor their income.

In this variant of V. I. Lenin, some points have two formulations: an original and a corrected one. We present them side by side. All original formulations in the manuscript are crossed out. The corrected formulations were sketched, apparently after remarks by Martov, which we provide in footnotes.

**Variant 2.**

**[Original Formulation.]**

A. D. The economic development of Russia and the ever-greater (intensified) involvement of it in international trade exchange leads to an ever-greater spread within it and ever more complete domination of the capitalist mode of production.

And Continuous improvement of technique undeviatingly increasingly augments, under the domination of capitalism, the economic significance of large enterprises, diminishes the role of petty independent producers...

**[Corrected Formulation.]**

**I.** The intensified involvement of Russia in international trade exchange and the growth of commodity production within the country lead to ever more complete domination within it of the capitalist mode of production, which is distinguished by the following fundamental characteristics.

**II.** Continuous improvement of technique increasingly augments the number, scale, and economic significance of large capitalistic enterprises, lowers the living standard of petty independent producers (peasants, artisans, craftsmen), transforms some of them into servants and tributaries of capital, completely ruins others, forcing them into the ranks of the propertyless, destitute class (the proletariat).

**III.** The most important part of the means of production and circulation of commodities increasingly concentrates itself in the hands of a comparatively small class of persons, while an ever-increasing majority of the population cannot maintain its existence otherwise than by the sale of its labor-power. As a result, it finds itself in the dependent position of hired workers (proletarians), who through their labor create the income of the owners of the means of production and circulation of commodities (capitalists and major landowners).

**IV.** Technical progress, by raising the productivity of labor, allows capitalists to raise the level of exploitation of workers, causing a relative (i.e., not proportional to the magnitude of capital) decrease in demand for labor-power (i.e., an increase in demand not proportional to the increase of capital) simultaneously with the relative and absolute increase in its supply. This, as well as the aforementioned fundamental tendencies of capitalism, lead to the growth of unemployment, destitution, exploitation, oppression and degradation.

**V.** Industrial crises lead to an even more serious worsening of the situation of the working class and petty producers, crises which are inevitably caused by the indicated contradictions of capitalism, inherent to it (and incapable of being eliminated by any associations of entrepreneurs), by the absence of planfulness in production, by the growth of mutual competition among capitalist countries on the world market. The poverty and destitution of the masses is supplemented by the squandering of social wealth due to the impossibility of finding a market for produced commodities.

**[Original Formulation.]** | **[Corrected Formulation.]**

**VI.** Thus the development of the productive forces of the working population is accompanied by the fact that... | **VI.** Thus the gigantic development of the productive forces of society and of ever more socialized labor is accompanied by the fact that all the principal benefits of this development are monopolized by an insignificant minority of the population, and the growth of social wealth goes hand in hand with the growth of social inequality, with an increase in the distance between the propertied and the propertyless, with the deepening and widening of the chasm between the class of owners (the bourgeoisie) and the class of proletarians.

**VII.** But at the same time as all these inevitable contradictions of capitalism grow and develop,

**[Original Formulation.]** | **[Corrected Formulation.]**

there grows also discontent and indignation of the working class, its cohesion increases through the very conditions of the capitalist mode of production itself, its struggle of the working class against the class of capitalists grows sharper, there grows (in its midst) the striving to free itself from the unbearable yoke of capitalism. | there grows the number and cohesion, discontent and indignation of the proletarians, sharpens

**[Original Formulation.]** | **[Corrected Formulation.]**

**VIII.** The liberation of the working class can be the work only of the working class itself. For the overthrow of the yoke of capitalism a social revolution is necessary, i.e.... | **VIII.** The liberation of the working class can be the work only of the working class itself, because all other classes of contemporary society are condemned to perish through the development of capitalism and therefore stand for the preservation of the foundations of the existing economic order. The liberation of the working class can be achieved truly only.... True liberation of the working class can be attained only... For the true liberation of the working class there is necessary the social revolution flowing naturally from the entire development of the capitalist mode of production, i.e., the destruction of... | For the real liberation of the working class there is necessary the social revolution flowing naturally from the entire development of the capitalist mode of production, i.e., the destruction of private property in the means of production, the transition of them into public property, and the replacement of capitalist production of commodities by the socialist organization of production of products for the account of the whole of society, to ensure the complete well-being and free all-round development of all its members.

**IX.** To accomplish this social revolution, the proletariat must conquer **political power**, which will make it master of the situation and allow it to eliminate all obstacles standing in the way of its great goal. In this sense the **dictatorship of the proletariat** constitutes a necessary political condition of the social revolution.

**X.** The revolution of the proletariat will be the liberation of all the oppressed and suffering humanity now, because it will put an end to all forms of oppression and exploitation of man by man.

**XI.** Russian social-democracy sets as its task—to expose before workers the irreconcilable contradiction of their interests with the interests of capitalists,—to clarify to the proletariat the historical significance, character and conditions of the social revolution which it is destined to accomplish,—to organize a revolutionary class party, capable of directing all manifestations of the struggle of the proletariat against the whole of the contemporary social and political order.

**XII.** But the development of international exchange and production for the world market has established such a close bond between all peoples of the civilized(?) world, that the great goal of the emancipatory struggle of the proletariat can be attained only through the combined efforts of the proletarians of all countries. Therefore the contemporary labor movement had to become and long ago became international, and Russian social-democracy regards itself as one of the detachments of the world army of the proletariat, as a **part of international social-democracy**.

**B. I.** The immediate goals of Russian social-democracy are, however, considerably modified by the fact that numerous remnants of pre-capitalist, feudal, social order with us retard to the strongest degree the development of productive forces, lower the living standard of the laboring population, condition Asiatic-barbarous forms of oppression of the many-million peasantry, keep in darkness, rightlessness and oppression the whole people. Russian social-democracy still has only to strive to attain those free civil and political institutions, which already exist in the advanced capitalist countries and which are absolutely necessary for the complete and all-round development of the class struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie.

**[Original Formulation.]** | **[Corrected Formulation.]**

**II.** Tsarist autocracy represents the most significant remnant of feudal order, the most powerful bulwark of all that barbarism and all those evils, from which the politically free countries have already been freed; it is the most vicious and dangerous enemy of the emancipatory movement of the proletariat. | The most significant of these remnants of feudal order, the most powerful bulwark of all that barbarism is tsarist autocracy. It is the most vicious and most dangerous enemy of the emancipatory movement of the proletariat and the cultural development of the whole people.

Therefore Russian social-democracy sets as its immediate political task the overthrow of tsarist autocracy and its replacement by a **republic** on the basis of a democratic constitution, ensuring:

1) the sovereignty of the people, i.e........................*

**I—VI. A)** Economic development of Russia and fundamental characteristics of capitalism.

**VII—XII. B)** Class struggle of the proletariat and the tasks of social-democracy.

**C)** Immediate goals of Russian social-democrats and their political demands.

**D)** Social (factory) reforms.

**E)** Financial reform and demands for the elimination of remnants of feudal society.

**F)** Conclusion. ("Tail.")

**A)** Economic development of Russia and general tasks of social-democracy.

**B)** Special political tasks and political demands of social-democracy.

**C)** Social reforms.

**D)** Financial and peasant transformations (reforms).